Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!phoenix!paul
From: paul@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Paul Lansky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: optical disk headaches
Keywords: optical disk, large files
Message-ID: <7855@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 20 Apr 89 21:13:26 GMT
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 30



I had a very bothersome problem with my optical disk drive, and it now
seems to need hardware repair as a result.
(I hope that this is a problem that disappears in .9)
I was writing a very large file to the OD, and when it got to about 99
megabytes I started getting the following console messages


Apr 19 22:40:37 dobro vmunix: 	servo not ready
Apr 19 22:40:37 dobro vmunix: 	linear encoder failed
Apr 19 22:41:06 dobro vmunix: od0a: write re-spin (linear encoder failed) block 155544 phys block 156584 (13935:0:8)
Apr 19 22:41:06 dobro vmunix: 	servo not ready
Apr 19 22:41:06 dobro vmunix: 	linear encoder failed
Apr 20 09:45:14 dobro vmunix: od0a: write re-spin (linear encoder failed) block 155040 phys block 156072 (13903:0:8)

etc. etc.

The drive was spinning up and down and the associated process would not
catch any signals.  I was logged on remotely, so I'm not sure how long
this went on.

I rebooted and  tried to reinitialize the disk.  It started out ok but
after a bit the same problem occurred (same disk.) I tried another (new)
OD, but the drive wouldn't accept it at first.  It did eventually but then I
couldn't eject the disk and had to force it out, and now the drive seems 
totally wedged.

Anybody have any similar problems?  Is the file size limitation a bug? 
Do I just have a bad OD and/or drive?